Nowadays business is going digital and companies are set to reap huge benefits, avoiding lengthy delays while papers get physically checked, stamped and transported between parties. Electronically preparing, exchanging and tracking business documents removes the complexities and inefficiencies of paper-based, labour intensive processes associated with paper-based transactions.
Traditionally, the paper method has been seen as the safest way to confirm that goods and payment have changed hands. Accordingly, for business to go digital, people need assurance that business documents cannot be forged.
Validity of electronic documents' content can be assured by various solutions known in the conventional art which enable digitally signing and verifying electronic documents. For example, when a digital signature is employed to sign a document, the signer can first identify exactly what is being signed. The content identified by the signer is hashed to generate a hash result that is essentially unique to the content of the document. Then, the hash result is converted into a digital signature using a private key of the signer to encrypt the hash result. In this manner, both the document and the private key are related to the digital signature. Optionally, the digital signatures can be embedded in the electronic document. In order to verify a digital signature, a verifier needs to have access to the public key (or representation thereof) of the signer in order to decrypt the hash result that was encrypted with the private key of the signer.
In addition to assurance of content's validity, some documents (e.g. certificates of origin, medical prescriptions, invoices, etc.) require assurance of uniqueness, i.e. preventing the document's replication. Documents of title (e.g. bills of lading, bank guarantees, promissory notes, bank cheques, car licenses, etc.) further require evidence of ownership, whilst negotiable documents of title also require that the current owner of the negotiable document of title is able to identify himself as the owner and to prove the ownership over the negotiable document of title.
For purpose of illustration only, the following description is provided for an electronic bill of lading (eB/L), one of the most prevalent documents of title. Those versed in the art will readily appreciate that, likewise, the disclosed subject matter can be applied to other, negotiable and nonnegotiable electronic documents of title (EDT) usable for transferring title.
Bill of Lading (B/L) typically has three functions, namely: 1) it is a receipt, i.e. an acknowledgement by the carrier that the goods have been loaded and comprises a description of the shipment (e.g. it identifies the shipper, receiver, pick up point/port and delivery point/port and describes the goods, for example, the quantity and quality of the goods and any remarks by the ship's captain about damage); 2) it outlines the terms of the contract of carriage; and 3) it constitutes title of the goods, the title is transferable when the Bill of Lading is negotiable. B/L may either be made out in a negotiable or a nonnegotiable form. Many efforts have been made to bring into existence EDT that would replicate all the functions of their paper counterparts and that would be acceptable for traders, bankers, secured lenders, carriers, freight forwarders, etc. The problems of managing EDT have been recognized in the Prior Art and various systems have been developed to provide a solution, for example:
US Patent Application No. 2001/016838 discloses a method of issuing an electronic negotiable document (END) comprising: creating as data an END and storing this in a tamper-resistant document carrier, the document carrier containing a unique public-secret key pair for signing and verifying a unique document carrier identifier; signing the unique document-carrier identifier, the END and an END identifier using the secret key of the public-secret key pair and storing the result in the document carrier.
US Patent Application No. 2002/095308 discloses a central server that facilitates and tracks shipping transactions, such as transactions in which a sending party or source organization wishes to have a shipment of goods transported to a delivery site or destination organization using a carrier. The source party wishing to ship goods may initiate a transaction. The various documents which need to be created in a shipping transaction (e.g., a bill of lading (“BOL”) or proof of delivery (“POD”) document) may be created and stored at the central server, which allows one or more of the parties to the transaction to view the documents as the status of the transaction changes. The vehicle transporting the shipment may be tracked by, for example, a global positioning system (“GPS”) system, and the location of the vehicle, before or after picking up the goods, may be tracked by one or more of the parties.
US Patent Application No. 2004/111619 discloses a system for securely vaulting, auditing, controlling and transferring electronic transferable records (IRs) with unique ownership, including at least one registry for registering the electronic transferable record with unique ownership in a TR registry record; at least one secure storage manager (SSM) associated with the registry, the SSM storing the transferable record registered in the registry as an authoritative copy, the secure storage manager being distinct from said registry. The transferable record can be transferred in a transaction between an originating party and a receiving party with a transaction descriptor including information about the parties involved in the transaction and an identification of the TR being transferred. The transaction descriptor is initially signed by the originating party with the TR, subsequently verified and countersigned by the registry and signed by said accepting party. The transaction descriptor, upon completion of the transaction, is stored in the TR registry record and se Flies to identify the authoritative copy of the TR.
US Patent Application No. 2005/240483 discloses a document managing system includes a document receiving section for receiving document, a document item database for storing a correspondence between the document data and bill of lading (B/L) data, a B/L creating section for creating B/L data according to the document data and the document item database. The document managing system also includes a letter of credit (L/C) storage for storing L/C data, a document storage for storing the document data and the B/L data, a document data collation database for storing a correspondence between the L/C data and the document data, a negotiation request receiving section for receiving negotiation request data for a document bill to which an identifier of the document data is set, and a document collating section for collating, according to the document collation database, the document data indicated by an identifier set to the negotiation request data with the L/C data.
US Patent Application No. 2008/235043 discloses a distributed system for communicating messages between registered users of the system, each registered user communicating with the system via a user terminal, the messages relating to an original electronic document that is stored on the system and associated with one of the user terminals, the system comprising a plurality of registries, each registry having a mutual trust relationship with each of the other registries and each registry being associated with one or more user terminals; wherein each registry is connectable to a data communications network, and comprises a processing means arranged to validate the eligibility of each of its registered users' user terminals to send or receive a message relating to the stored electronic document, the processing means further being arranged to notarize a message sent from or received by the user terminal of one of its one or more registered users, the notarization indicating the validity of the message relating to the stored document.
US Patent Application No. 2009/125425 discloses a method for auditable tracking of a shipment. The method includes providing instructions for execution on a server and for execution on a mobile device. The instructions for execution on the server include at least one code segment configured to: receive a request from a shipper to ship a plurality of goods, receive logistics information from a logistics company in response to the request from the shipper, receive from the shipper a bill of lading (BOL), and receive from the logistics company data identifying a quantity of the plurality of goods that was delivered. The instructions for execution on the mobile device include at least one code segment configured to: enable a user to edit the BOL responsive to an inspection by the user of the delivered plurality of goods, and provide the edited BOL to the server, the shipper, and the logistics company.
US Patent Application No. 2010/146385 discloses a method of amending an electronic document in a distributed electronic document system, the electronic document being associated with a current holder (H) who has a right of control over the document and a first party, the method of amending the electronic document comprising the steps of holder H raising an amendment request which details the amendments required to the electronic document; sending the amendment request from H to the first party via the electronic document system for approval; updating the electronic document with the amendments detailed in the amendment request if the first party approves the amendment request, and transmitting the updated electronic document to current holder H wherein the method further comprises maintaining the right of control over the electronic document with H until the first party approves the amendment request.
US Patent Application No. 2010/146047 discloses a technique of the automated, community-based exchange of procurement documents. In some of embodiments, there may be different sets of rules for each of a number of different communities of trading partners. Each set of rules may be made up of rules data for the automated exchange of procurement documents in respective communities. By way of example, a host trading partner may select the rules for exchange of procurement documents for a community. Invited trading partners may register for the community, and rules for the community may then be distributed to the registered trading partners.
US Patent Application No. 2011/029433 discloses an import/export facility; said facility including computer implemented software resident on servers and databases maintained by a Central Control Facility; said software providing for registration of Importers and Exporters and at least one Bank in each country of operation of registered said Importers and Exporters; said registration effected by accessing Internet web pages generated and transmitted by said software; said at least one Bank registering on behalf of a said registered Importer, a Hybrid Bank Guarantee with said Central Control Facility; a registered Exporter registering with said Central Control Facility an invoice against said Hybrid Bank Guarantee for a transaction with a said registered Importer, and wherein said software executes steps to monitor registered invoices against said Hybrid Bank Guarantee; said steps including: (e) adding the value of an invoice submitted for registration to a sum of values of invoices (if any) prior registered against said Hybrid Bank Guarantee to derive a total value, (b) comparing said derived total value to the value of said registered Hybrid Bank Guarantee against which said invoice was submitted for registration, (c) registering said invoice against said registered Hybrid Bank Guarantee of the registered Importer to whom said invoice is directed if said total value does not exceed the value of said Hybrid Bank Guarantee, (d) maintaining registration of a said invoice for a period nominated by a said registered Exporter on payment of a registration fee, and wherein said computer system rejects for registration any invoice submitted for registration by a said Exporter against a said Hybrid Bank Guarantee if said derived total value is greater than the value of said Hybrid Bank Guarantee; said computer system generating, and causing to be transmitted, email advice of rejection to said Exporter and to said Importer; and wherein said Exporter may claim against said Hybrid Bank Guarantee if payment of a registered invoice is not made by said Importer within a nominated registration period of said invoice.
The references cited in the background teach many principles of managing EDT that are applicable to the presently disclosed subject matter. Therefore the full contents of these publications are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.
General Description
In accordance with certain aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter, there is provided a method of managing electronic documents of title (EDTs) in a decentralized system comprising a plurality of processor-based holding nodes connected to each other in a peer-to-peer fashion and each maintaining a local copy of at least one decentralized transaction database (DTDB) shared by the holding nodes. DTDB can be shared merely by holding nodes comprised in the decentralized system. Alternatively, DTDB can be shared by holding nodes comprised in the decentralized system and by other nodes.
The method comprises:                by an issuing node, generating a root unique object (RUO) associated with the issuing node and usable as a pointer to a blockchain maintained in the DTDB, thereby initiating for a given EDT a possession chain characterized by ID associated with the RUO (RUOID);        by the issuing node, embedding into the given EDT a data object informative of the RUOID, and digitally signing, the EDT with the embedded data object in a manner enabling an authorized holding node to verify the EDT and to extract the data object, thereby giving rise to a generated EDT;        by each holding node currently being in possession of the generated EDT, transferring possession of the generated EDT to a recipient holding node being the next node to become in possession of the generated EDT, the transferring possession comprises: obtaining from the blockchain a first unique object generated by a holding node which has transferred EDT possession to the first holding node; using the first unique object to generate a second unique object which is indicative of the first unique object, specifies the recipient holding node and is includable in the blockchain; enabling including the generated next unique object into the blockchain; and forwarding the generated EDT to the recipient holding node via a digital media;        by each holding node, responsive to receiving possession of the generated EDT: validating the received generated EDT; using RUO_ID embedded in the generated EDT to validate possession chain; and transferring possession of the generated EDT to recipient holding node.        
By way of non-limiting example, the issuing node can generate the root unique object by sending a token to itself, thereby generating a root transaction associated with the issuing node.
Optionally, the unique object generated by holding node when transferring EDT possession can be a possession transaction with an input referring to the previous possession transaction in the possession chain and with an output indicative of address of recipient holding node. Enabling including the generated next unique object into the blockchain can comprise broadcasting a message informative of the possession transaction to all nodes sharing DTDB.
In accordance with further aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter and in possible combinations with other aspects, validating the possession chain can comprise extracting RUO_ID from the EDT and traversing the blockchain to identify, with the help of RUO_ID, the beginning of the possession chain. Optionally, a holding node traverses the blockchain responsive to receiving the generated EDT.
In accordance with further aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter and in possible combinations with other aspects, validating the possession chain can comprise querying, by a holding node, the blockchain for transactions associated with RUO_ID and searching within such transactions for indication of respective possessors of the given EDT.
In accordance with further aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter and in possible combinations with other aspects, the method can further comprise triggering by the issuing node an alert indicative of problems related to the given EDT.
In accordance with further aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter and in possible combinations with other aspects, the method can further comprise: by each holding node, prior to transferring possession of the generated EDT to a recipient holding node, obtaining and validating a signed random address (SRA) of the recipient holding node, and transferring possession in accordance with the obtained SRA. Each holding node can forward the generated EDT to the recipient holding node using a shared storage server, the shared storage server configured such that downloading a given EDT requires knowledge of public key associated with the given EDT, and uploading the given EDT requires proof of ownership of a pairing private key.
In accordance with further aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter and in possible combinations with other aspects, the method can further comprise transferring title specified in the given EDT, the transferring being bound to the possession chain. Optionally, each endorser holding node currently being associated with the current owner of title: generates and signs an endorsement object, the endorsement object informative of a ID of endorsee holding node associated with the next owner of title), adds the generated endorsement object to the generated EDT and signs the EDT together with the added endorsement object, thereby giving rise to an appended EDT; and transfers the appended EDT to the endorsee holding node through one or more next recipient holding nodes in the possession chain. Optionally, each endorser holding node, prior to generating and signing the endorsement object, can obtain and validate a signed random address (SRA) of the endorsee holding node, and generate the endorsement object using the obtained SRA.
In accordance with other aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter, there is provided a decentralized system capable of computerized managing electronic documents of title (EDTs), the system comprising a plurality of processor-based holding nodes connected to each other in a peer-to-peer fashion and each maintaining a local copy of at least one decentralized transaction database (DTDB) shared by the holding nodes, the system being configured to perform the method above.
In accordance with other aspects of the presently disclosed subject matter, there is provided a computer program product implemented on a non-transitory computer usable medium and comprising computer readable program code for performing the method above.
Among advantages of certain embodiments of the presently disclosed subject matter is enabling EDT to change hands whilst ensuring uniqueness of EDT itself and, the title thereof. Management of EDT transferring can be provided with no need of involvement of a trusted third party, or, optionally, with third party involved, merely, in trusted management of cryptographic keys.